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Rep. Young Lays Out House Indian Country Agenda for 113th Congress

Rob Capriccioso

12/26/12

U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., has announced that Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, will continue to chair the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs in the 113th Congress.

Young has chaired the Subcommittee during the 112th Congress, directing attention to his desire for increased economic development and self-determination initiatives for tribes.

He has also butted heads with the Obama administration’s Interior Department, which neglected to send an official to testify at his hearing on tribal federal recognition this summer, and he has been a critic of how some aspects of the Cobell settlement have unfolded, particularly surrounding the lawyers involved in the case and the administration’s handling of separate tribal trust settlements.

“I have made no bones about what my intent is – I want to see federal Indian policy move in a completely new direction,” Young wrote. “That direction includes returning power back to the tribes and allowing them – at their sole discretion – to remove the Federal government from overseeing their lands. It is my belief this will lead to the improvement of the quality of life for America’s tribes. The idea of empowering tribes and finally getting the Federal Government out of their way is a concept I will not compromise on. The lands that our tribes occupy are rightfully theirs and if they want to develop those lands for the betterment of their people – then the Federal Government should not stand in their way as it has so often done.”

In response to the news of his reappointment to chair the Subcommittee, Young was pleased, and he vowed to continue advocating for tribes.

“I am honored to continue as Chairman of the Indian and Alaska Native Affairs Subcommittee and in the 113th Congress I look forward to continuing a discussion to increase tribal self-government through removing outdated, excessive BIA policies and rules that impede tribes from using their lands for their members’ benefit,” Young said.

“The subcommittee intends to conduct vigorous oversight of the Interior Department, particularly in how it conducts the land consolidation program that has just commenced, and also promote natural resource development by tribes that seek to use their forest, oil, gas, coal, mineral, and renewable resources for the good of the tribes and the surrounding communities.”

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"The lands that our tribes occupy are rightfully theirs and if they want to develop those lands for the betterment of their people - then the Federal Government should not stand in their way." ...But when another tribe pays me a lot of money to say that their neighboring tribe should not be allowed to open a casino that competes against the ones operated by the tribe that contributes to my campaign fund, that's different.

"Doc" Hastings is the most anti-Indian pro termination bigot in Washington State legislature. He supports anything that promotes his rich, old, white friends especially if it will undermind the spiritual or historical beliefs of the Indian. He should have been ousted ages ago.

I'm very happy to hear such news. It should have come a couple centuries ago. The Lands to be owned by Native Nations, was theirs in the first place. They were given nothing. Only a lot of taking going on there. It was and is still, an attempt to assimilate Native Nations so they would act like the European culture. In part, it has been a success. Traditional enemies were placed on the same reservation so there would be no cooperation. European Religions were granted the right and paid to school Native children in order to take them from their family and their Nation. That also worked to assimilate the savage in them.
The effort has taken root very well. Tribal leaders, now act exactly like the European leaders in our government. They are just as self serving, just as greedy and just as corrupt as our National government. They divorce them selves from their own people and look only to personal benefit of office. Sounds like a government we know well, doesn't it?
Native Nations should always have had the right to use their own lands for the benefit of their people. It's just that it's been long enough now that Tribal leaders can't do any thing in an honorable way now. They have been assimilated completely and think only in selfish terms. I have never been so embarrassed in my entire life, than I've been in the past century. How is a person to hold their head up with pride when we witness daily the corruption in our National Government?

I'm very happy to hear such news. It should have come a couple centuries ago. The Lands to be owned by Native Nations, was theirs in the first place. They were given nothing. Only a lot of taking going on there. It was and is still, an attempt to assimilate Native Nations so they would act like the European culture. In part, it has been a success. Traditional enemies were placed on the same reservation so there would be no cooperation. European Religions were granted the right and paid to school Native children in order to take them from their family and their Nation. That also worked to assimilate the savage in them.
The effort has taken root very well. Tribal leaders, now act exactly like the European leaders in our government. They are just as self serving, just as greedy and just as corrupt as our National government. They divorce them selves from their own people and look only to personal benefit of office. Sounds like a government we know well, doesn't it?
Native Nations should always have had the right to use their own lands for the benefit of their people. It's just that it's been long enough now that Tribal leaders can't do any thing in an honorable way now. They have been assimilated completely and think only in selfish terms. I have never been so embarrassed in my entire life, than I've been in the past century. How is a person to hold their head up with pride when we witness daily the corruption in our National Government?